Tag: Reviews

Ahh, summertime…a time for beach days, lemonade, and family vacations. Want to know what I think the perfect accompaniment to any of these things is? A good book.

Like so many of my fellow book nerds, picking the next thing to read can become a major problem…#TheStruggleisReal! Lucky for you, however, I’ve gone through the roster and chosen some pretty, perfect options.

Check out five of my personal faves for those lazy dog days of summer.

If one thing screams summer for me, it’s Mary Kay Andrews! Her books are always light, fun, and oh so irresistible. Spring Fever tells the story of Annajane Hudgens and her unconventional love life in Passcoe, North Carolina – Home of the Quixie Cherry Soda Company. This story has love, laughter, and some small town secrets that will have you flipping pages at lightning speed!

Written by Jojo Moyes, author of Me Before You, this Little Miss Sunshine-esque story is the perfect pick for a day by the pool. One Plus One will tickle your funny bone and break your heart all at the same time (Ms. Moyes seems to be good at that!) A mother and her two kids find themselves in the debt of a stranger who offers them a ride to a math competition in Scotland. After a series of unexpected events, they all wonder if their lives will ever be the same again.

Currently making it’s slow transition from book to film, Where’d You Go, Bernadette? is a hilarious delight of pessimistic and neurotic proportions. The title character, Bernadette Fox, is an opinionated woman, revolutionary architect and loving mother to her fifteen year-old daughter, Bee. She is also overwrought with agoraphobia. Things quickly become complicated when Bernadette disappears while planning the anxiety-inducing trip to Antarctica that she’s promised Bee. Intrigued yet?

From the author of Gone Girl, Sharp Objects spins a wicked web of dysfunction, mental illness, and family psychosis. What happens when a damaged reporter, Camille Preaker, is sent to her own hometown to help figure out why young girls are being found murdered and mutilated? This one’s not for the light of heart, but will keep you turning pages long into the night.

A personal favorite of mine, the adorable Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society will give you all the feels. When a struggling writer, Juliet Ashton, is searching for the subject of her next book, she finds inspiration in a letter from a man she’s never even met. This individual, and his quirky companions on the island of Guernsey, begin an intriguing correspondence with Juliet that will change her life forever. This was one of those books that made me wish I could crawl inside and stay for awhile!

Now that I’ve given you five of my top picks for the summer, I’d love to hear your suggestions! What are you all reading right now?

So I’m sure by now, you’ve all been hearing about the amazingness that is Me Before You. What started as an incredible book, has become a highly anticipated movie that finally hit the box office this past weekend. Despite my love and adoration for the book, though, a disgusting barrage of germs and sickness has kept me homebound and unable to experience the film for myself quite yet. Take that as a PSA and keep in mind that this post may be slightly uninformed. But anyways…here we go.

I have a huge distaste for spoilers, so no worries; this post will not give anything away. Suffice it to say, however, the male lead in this book/film pairing is a wheelchair-bound quadriplegic who has a very negative point of view on his injury. This has been striking a lot nerves amongst wheelchair users and other disabled individuals. They’re concern over the book’s message is that it seems to say that this group of people can’t possibly live happy, fulfilling lives. That an injury, such as the one suffered by the man in the story, leaves you with nothing to look forward to.

Being that I can look at the situation with a touch of personal experience, I thought I’d offer up my own perspective.

Two of my greatest passions in life are books and art. So when one man decided to combine the two and create a brilliant world for us to play in…my head just about exploded! A collector of old photographs, Ransom Riggs has developed quite the inventory of unique and unusual pictures from days past. For some of you that may not remember, there was a time not so long ago, when Photoshop did not exist. While there were still ways of manipulating an image, the technology was a far cry from that which we know today. Alas, this post is not a lecture on the overuse of photo editing techniques…this is merely an introduction to images like these:

I did something terrible yesterday; something that there’s just no coming back from. I watched Frozen…twice…in a four hour period. I bow my head in shame.

You see this damn movie has been out for almost three years now, and despite the constant flutter of songs, quotes, and merchandise, I’d managed to escape its grasp. No two ways about it, this movie pissed me off. Who did these little Elsa and Anna idiots think they were? Being compared to the Disney greats like Belle and Ariel; it’s blasphemy I say. So strictly out of principle, I stood my ground and vowed never to see it. In fact, one of the first parental decisions I made upon finding out we were having a girl is that she would never fall victim to this godforsaken movie’s wicked claws.

I’d seen what was happening around me. There was a never-ending flow of Frozen themed birthday parties and Halloween costumes. The toy aisles were overrun with strangely misshapen snowmen and reindeer. And don’t even get me started on the song…I was convinced my ears would bleed the next time someone uttered those three little words (I won’t even write them..there will be no sing-along happening here!)

But alas, it seemed as though the odds were stacking up against me. When my friend Katie (a fellow Anti-Frozen team member) called to say she’d watched it, I realized there was a chance I may be the last person on Earth who was missing out on some extraordinary secret. So I did it…I set up the DVR and recorded the stupid movie.

I told myself that I wasn’t doing it or me. After all, I’m a mature adult that is capable of not watching some silly, little Disney movie. I was simply being a kind and responsible mother. How would it look if my poor child showed up somewhere and was completely out of the loop? At ten months old, that would clearly be devastating to her social standing.

So during playtime today, I put it on…just as background noise, you know? Very quickly I realized that my young child had no interest in watching this thing. Thank goodness…she wasn’t getting sucked in. I had dodged a bullet. Except what did that character just say? Where were they going? How’d the damn snowman get there again? Suddenly it was nap time and I graciously hit stop on the DVR, turning instead to some high-quality adult television.

But wait…what was that nagging? I began to realize I was anxious to continue watching. I mean, I had to find out if she chose Kristoff or Hans, right!?! So I did it. I finished the stupid movie and then, within a couple of hours, I’d restarted it for a second viewing.

So there you have it, folks. My life is officially over and I am just another weak-minded statistic. I don’t know how I fell so far, so fast, but the answer is yes: I want to build a damned snowman!

Now leave me to my Frozen-filled misery…it’s about time for me to watch it again.

I’ve been a complete and total failure in the book department lately. I have only read 1 and a 1/2 books so far in 2016, certainly not a personal best. I can practically hear my Goodreads Reading Challenge taunting me from afar. Alas, life has been keeping me pretty busy. I solemnly swear to the gods of literature that I will attempt to redeem myself, but for now, I can, at least, say that the one book I read in its entirety was a good one.

Orphan Train, by Christina Baker Kline, was written to pull at your heartstrings. Slightly predictable in parts, this was a story that needed to be told. Jumping between time periods, this book tells the tale of a modern day teenager who is attempting to survive our flawed American foster system and a girl from the past who barely survived the New York orphan train in the late 1920’s.

This story brings us face to face with the vicious childcare system that so many babies, toddlers, and young children find themselves thrown into. This is not to say that every situation is a bad one, but the terrible experiences had by the characters in this book seem to be more common than necessary.

I couldn’t put this book down. It is such a beautiful portrayal of hope and perseverance. I feel that I learned so much about this area of American history. I’m almost ashamed how little I knew before. So if you’re looking for a truly good read, I’d highly suggest you give this one a chance.

When it comes to books, I pride myself on the ability to figure them out before I even finish page one. For that matter, I’ve usually determined what will happen before the books even open. Once in a blue moon, however, I’m wrong (don’t tell my husband!)

Every now and then, I’ll come across a story that’s completely off the cuff. A novel that goes against the rules of storytelling and gives us something incredibly unique. Most of the time, these books offer the reader a single moment that will cause their breath to catch in their throats. The kind of moment that makes you wonder why you’re reading the book at all, and whether throwing the blasphemous thing across the room is the better option. Except that you can’t, and you realize that this element of surprise kind of makes you love the book even more.

This being said, I present you with my top three “caught off guard” classics:

Gone Girl – Gillian Flynn: If you’ve been living under a rock, let me tell you this; when “the moment” happens, you will want to cry, scream and bitch someone out all at once!

The Fault in Our Stars – John Green: Oh John Green, you terrible, wonderful man. You ruined my life and gave me one of the most beautiful reading experiences all at once. One day in the near future, I fully intend to dedicate an entire post to nothing but singing your praises!

And finally, number 3. The most recent addition to my list:

Me Before You – Jojo Moyes

Within the first few pages of this book, I was completely infatuated. There was a lightness to Moyes’ writing that pulled at my heart strings. She has a way of getting to you that you never dreamed possible.

This is the story of Lou Clark, a young girl who’s down on her luck after the diner she’s worked at for years closes down. With grim employment options, she finds herself working as a caretaker for the wealthy Will Traynor, a quadriplegic who spends his days dwelling on the past. When Lou first arrives to work for him, it’s truly rough waters. She spends her days lurking around his home, avoiding him at much as possible. Will, likewise, spends his days ruefully ignoring her.

In time, though, they develop an unexpected closeness that surprises them both. Here’s where I’d assumed I’d “figured it out.” An unconventional love story where both parties help the other to remember the joy and beauty in life, yadda, yadda, yadda. Yeah, not so much.

Now don’t get me wrong. They both do help one another to reclaim happiness in their lives, but the journey itself is quite shocking. There comes a moment in the book where you realize what an idiot you’ve been. You begin to understand that this is not a puppies and rainbows kind of story. Believe me when I say that I spent the last 100 pages or so with tears streaming down my face.

If you choose to pick up this book, be prepared for that moment. I won’t sugar coat anything, it will shatter your heart. But if you give this book a chance, you’ll see just how moving it really is. This is the first thing I’ve read in a very long time that pushed me to take a look at myself and evaluate each part of my own beautiful life. In my opinion, Me Before You isn’t just a book, it’s truly an experience.

So I’m a little bit fanatic when it comes to books. Sometimes I wish it was possible to literally fall into their pages for a nice long snuggle…seems like the coziest idea ever, in my opinion! I submerge myself in their words, and when I find a book that I fall completely in love with, it becomes a lifelong friend. The book will turn into a small part of me, and I will spend obscene amounts of time reflecting on all of the good times we’ve had.

Then, as I develop this strong attachment to the books themselves, I find myself willing to dedicate my life to the authors who’ve written them. Write a book that really pulls at my heartstrings and I will become your devoted enthusiast. Such was the case when I finished reading Savannah Breeze by Mary Kay Andrews. At the close of the book, I was ready and willing to crawl into the world that MKA created. And this is how I became a stalker.

Once I’d fallen in love with her fun work, I took the next logical step…I followed her on Facebook! Imagine my surprise and delight when one fateful day I discovered she was researching her next novel in my own hometown. I counted my lucky stars and decided it was completely appropriate to send her a message that went something like this…

“Hi there! I love your work and can’t help but notice that you’re currently in my hometown. I’d love the opportunity to meet you in person!”

I waited patiently for an invitation to join her at the beach house she was renting where we’d drink wine and giggle over the silly adventures of the characters in her books. We’d become besties and her next book would be dedicated to the wine-o from Florida! Instead, however, I got a very gracious thank you and an invite to the book signing she was holding the next day. Not exactly a day at the beach, but I’d take it! So then this happened…

She was so wonderful, not to mention hilarious, in real life that on a recent trip to Savannah, I once again took to her Facebook page. I knew she owned a vacation rental on Tybee Island and spent lots of her time there (Can you say stalker?) Much to my delight, there was going to be another signing during our vacation. I dragged my husband over there with me and had her sign the very book she’d been researching at our first meeting, Ladies Night.

Ladies Night tells the tale of a group of women (and one man) who have been wronged by their spouses and are each in the middle of nasty divorces. They are forced to attend weekly marriage counseling sessions and form fast friendships. When their counselor starts acting a little out of her head, things start getting interesting and the plot takes off. The book is set in my hometown area, so for any of my fellow locals, you’ll notice lots of familiar sites and areas, including the famous Rod and Reel Pier.

While I have to admit that this book might not be one of my favorites by MKA, that’s not to say you shouldn’t read it. It’s a fast, fun read that has all the necessary components. Things like romance, suspense, laughter, and women driving their ex-husbands Audi into a pool! This book is the perfect summer companion, and I highly recommend it to you all!

When I made the decision to start this blog, I found myself wondering what it should be about. After all, I am, by no means, an expert on anything. Well unless being obsessive is something that a person can be an expert in!

And that’s what I am…obsessive. I have the capability to obsess over just about anything (“just about” being the pertinent phrase!) Whether it’s my child, a great book, finding the perfect glass of wine – sometimes I feel like I could get excited about a million different things before noon! Hence the name of this blog…”The Natural Verve.” I have a pure, simplistic enthusiasm for so many elements in my life.

So I ask…why pick one? Why not let you all in and share the whole lot of my many infatuations? And that’s what I intend to do. If you came to this blog looking for great recipes, I’m pretty sure you’ll find them in time. Looking for a good book? Something tells me you’ll eventually find a review or two (who am I kidding, probably a whole library’s worth!) Or maybe you found this blog and thought: “Hey, maybe that writer has a super cute kid?” The answer is yes, I most definitely do, and I will certainly be bragging about her adorable-ness!

At “The Natural Verve,” I won’t just offer you one choice from the color wheel. I plan on giving you the whole damn rainbow! So join me on this quest for variety. Read along as I make my way through my a world of likes, dislikes and new experiences! Welcome, and happy reading!